


Ruined Youth

by cyanidegirl



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Reflection, looking back to the beginning, this could be from literally any of the kids perspectives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-23 16:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8334667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyanidegirl/pseuds/cyanidegirl
Summary: Today is the day.





	

         _How did it all go so wrong?_

        You ask yourself this as you stand knee deep in snow, staring at the line of holograms.  The memorials haunt you in your sleep, every face frozen forever.   Every life ended before it could truly begin.  

        You never meant for all this, none of you did.  No one ever does.  When you started this team, you were just kids.  Kids with extraordinary powers and a drive to protect a world that had kicked you as hard as it could.   You never really understood what was at stake.   You’d felt loss but this, this is different.  

        You grew up with these people, built memories and relationships.  They were the center of your world, and you were at the center of theirs.  This team became a family.  Broken pieces fell together to make something beautiful.  

        And it was.  It was so, _so,_ beautiful.  Each mission and training session was a new reason to love life.  Every dodged bullet and choreographed attack filled your blood with a fire that wouldn’t ever be put out.   You’d never been happier, more fulfilled.  You had a family again.  You had a purpose.  Protect that family and the world.  You all felt it, engraved in your bones, an innate sense.  It was flawed and clumsy at times, but at the end of the day you would all die for each other.     
        And they did, didn’t they?  Made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the world and their loved ones.  They gave up their futures, all the potential they had, so that the family could go on saving others.   School graduations, first kisses, first jobs, first apartments and houses, so much _potential_.  All of it gone.  

        _We were just kids_

        None of you acted like it, but you were.  And isn’t that the tragedy of it all?  So many of you were robbed of a proper childhood and still you believed in the world.  You all believed a happy ending could be fought for, that as long as you tried everything would be okay.  The world let you have it for a while.  Saving lives and having pizza parties in a cave with your friends.  A small bit of youth, even though it was riddled with battles.  Even if it wouldn’t last.  

        The friends you’ve lost keep you up at night, and sometimes you swear you can hear them laughing in the distance.  You remember all their best jokes, how it felt to hug them or clasp hands after missions.  You remember the joy in each of their eyes every time the team succeeded.  They haunt your dreams, bright eyes growing dim, warm laughs turning cold and silent.  You wonder if the older heroes get like this, or if it’s worse because you’re so young.  You’re all so young.

        The saddest part about dying young is the trauma that explodes like shrapnel, catching everyone in it’s path.  Your short life is riddled with friends-turned-martyrs, a myriad of ruined youth.  

        _What could go wrong?_


End file.
